Day Seventeen

Sugar (even the cleverly named, hidden forms of it)

Whole9  has every resource you could possibly want.  Below is an awesome post on sugar and where it might be hiding.  Source: http://whole9life.com/2010/06/sugar-sugar-sugar/

Today’s post is dedicated to calling out all of the sneaky ways SUGAR may try to hide in the foods you eat, and shining a light on the misleading claims that are made in support of one form of sugar or another.  They (the high fructose corn syrup people, the agave people, the Stevia people) claim because a sugar is “natural” or “low on the glycemic index” or “non-nutritive” that it’s somehowhealthy for us.  On top of that, they sneak it in under the guise of a label that sounds vaguely plant-like and harmless, or in plain sight under its scientific name, easy to overlook because you just plain don’t know what it is.    The truth?  Sugar is sugar is sugar, regardless of the form it may take or the claims it might make. And on no planet does added sugar ever make you healthier.

Below is a list of the most commonly employed sneaky ways “they” find to sweeten the foods we eat.  Don’t be fooled. Educate yourself, read your labels and avoid regular consumption of products with added sugar, in any form.

Just Plain Sugar

• ______ Sugar (brown sugar, cane sugar, raw sugar, beet sugar, confectioner’s sugar, etc.)
• ______ Syrup (high fructose corn syrup, malt syrup, refiner’s syrup, rice syrup, etc.)

Science-y Names for Sugar

• Dextrose
• Disaccharide
• Fructose
• Glucose
• Galactose
• Lactose
• Maltodextrin
• Maltose
• Monosaccharide
• Polysaccharide
• Ribose
• Saccharose
• Sucrose

“Natural” Sugars

• Agave Nectar
• Coconut Nectar
• Coconut Sugar
• Date Sugar
• (Evaporated) Cane juice
• Fruit Juice*
• Honey
• Maple Syrup
• Molasses
• Rice Malt (extract)
• (Sweet) Sorghum
• Treacle

*Admittedly, it can be hard to know where to stop in your quest to remove added sugar from your diet.  Fruit juice is basically just sugar, which is why we’re including it here.  Does that mean your apple juice sweetened chicken sausage is out?  That’s your call.  We’re just here to present the information – what you do with it is up to you.

Artificial (Non-Nutritive) Sweeteners

• Aspartame
• Acesulfame-K/Potassium
• Equal
• Nutra-Sweet
• Saccharin
• Splenda
• Stevia
• Sucralose
• SweetLeaf
• Sweet ‘n Low
• Truvia

Sugar Alcohols

• Arabitol
• Dulcitol
• Erythritol
• Glycol
• Glycerol
• Hydrogenated Starch Hydrosylate (HSH)
• Iditol
• Isomalt
• Lactitol
• Maltitol
• Mannitol
• Polyglycitol
• Ribitol
• Sorbitol
• Threitol
• Xylitol

Now that you are armed with your handy dandy list of sugar and all its aliases be on the look out for places it may be hiding.  Knowledge is power :) Logging your points is also powerful so get it done. :)